PNCA News

Micah Malone reviewed recently Arnold J. Kemp’s This Quiet Dust, Ladies and Gentleman in the Critics’ Picks section of Artforum.com. This show is on view at “PDX Contemporary Art”:http://www.pdxcontemporaryart.com/ now through November 28. Kemp became the Chair of PNCA’s “MFA in Visual Studies”:http://www.pnca.edu/programs/mfa/visualstudies.php program during the Fall 2009 term.

An excerpt from the review:

“It is tempting to view Arnold J. Kemp’s new work strictly in formal terms: modest collages with black paint, glitter, and googly doll eyes that form abstract patterns and pleasant landscape arrangements. Yet the paint used in each piece seems not simply an aesthetic choice and suggests further musings on the elasticity of Black representation, as well as the personal biography of Kemp, an African-American artist. In several small monochromes, such as Vampire (Titled), 2009, one can see evidence of bright primary colors that were applied prior to the surface coat, a black “skin” of paint. In other works, Kemp affixes groups of googly eyes together, which rummage through the picture and impede on dense patches of black glitter, the mixture both kitschy and mildly foreboding.”

“Read the full review of This Quiet Dust, Ladies and Gentlemen on Artforum.com.”:http://artforum.com/picks/section=us#picks24141

“Read more about Arnold J. Kemp and his role as MFA Chair at PNCA”:http://www.pnca.edu/news/press/636/pacific-northwest-college-of-art-announces-arnold-j-kemp-as-new-chair-of-the-mfa-in-visual-studies-program.